Three men who plotted to flood Merseyside with cocaine worth more than £1.25m were jailed for a total of 25 years.

Christopher Corry, 41, was the leader of a gang moving 6kg of import purity cocaine which could have been diluted to make as much as 22.5kg worth up to £1.25m at street level.

Ryan McQueen, 32, was Corry's courier who in the days before his arrest flew from Belfast to Stanstead Airport and then drove a truck to continental Europe before returning via ferry and being picked up by Corry who brought him back to Liverpool with the cocaine.

Ryan McQueen

Jordan Talbot, 22, was on the Liverpool side and his job was to pick up the drugs and deliver them to local criminals.

Jordan-Talbot

Ian Harris, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court how Talbot met Corry at his house on Halifax Crescent, Thornton, on January 17 but as he drove away from the meeting was stopped and searched by police.

Meanwhile Corry drove to meet McQueen who had bags with him and the two went to Rushton Garden Centre, Crosby, where they met Talbot after he had been released by detectives.

He took the bags and left in a taxi but was then swooped on by police who caught him after a chase. They found the drugs in his bag.

Mr Harris said their motive was financial and quoted McQueen’s text to his girlfriend, saying: “I’ll do anything to secure our future comfortably”.

Corry of Halifax Crescent, Thornton, and McQueen, of Laurel Drive, Laurel Vale, County Armagh, both of whom were born in Northern Ireland, and Jordan Talbot, of Elson Road, Formby, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class a drugs but were not charged with importation as police could not prove where the cocaine came from.

Corry is a former soldier who served in the Royal Irish Rangers after his uncle was shot by the IRA.

Judge Mark Brown told them: “This was a well planned premeditated offence and required a measure of organisation. It is clear that the three of you were motivated by significant financial gain and in texts to your partner recovered from your phone Ryan McQueen it is clear that you understood the obvious risks you were taking.

“Class A drugs wreak havoc with people’s lives. They cause a great deal of misery and deprivation. The courts must do everything possible to rid society of this dreadful trade.”

He jailed Corry for eleven and a half years, McQueen for seven years and Talbot for six and half years.

Detective Superintendent Chris Green from Merseyside Police, said: "These men have been jailed for a total of 25 years and their arrests were made following an extensive investigation by officers in the Matrix Serious and Organised Crime team into the supply of class A drugs.

"Merseyside Police is absolutely committed to tackling the supply of drugs and the force will do everything possible to identify and take action against people who think they can profit from bringing misery to our communities. These people have no regard for the misery that drugs bring to our communities and are only interested about the money they could make.

"The force will continue to tackle the supply of drugs and we are determine to identify, target and disrupt those involved in such crime to put them before the courts. We want to make things as difficult as possible for drug dealers and we want to ensure Merseyside remains a hostile environment for anyone involved in such activity.

"The three offenders were hoping to supply and distribute about six kilograms of cocaine on the streets of Merseyside and I am glad to say we have stopped them from doing this and they are now starting lengthy prison sentences."

"I would urge anyone with information about drug crime to call police and I would like to reassure anyone who gives information that we will look into it. Information provided by our communities can be integral to assisting our enquiries and can lead to us taking action against offenders.